Foster Care Slideshow

By: Whitney Taylor

For over 20 years, Patrick and Pearl Ireton have been foster parents to medically fragile individuals.  The Iretons worked hard to make the foster care system better by doing things like pushing for legislation that will better the lives of their children.  Their main complaint about the system is that the children are not the priority.

It is hard for the Iretons to support their children because caring for them is a full time job for both parents.  Their main source of income comes from investing and property management.  The Iretons permanently adopted three of the six children who came into their care as babies in the late 1980’s: Ray, Mason, and Kristen.  They chose these three because they have the most functional disabilities and don’t need as much funding from the foster care system.  This funding is often harder to obtain when the child is adopted out of the system.  The other three, Noah, Jennifer, and Alex, require more government funding because their disabilities are more serious and intense.

Every foster child and foster situation is different, and this holds true in the Ireton family.  All the children have different medical conditions, family situations, and functional abilities.  Ray came to the Iretons with 37 skull fractures because of family abuse.  Now, he has a job in the community and also runs his own recycling business.  Mason was born with some of his internal organs outside of his body and had a feeding tube for most of his life, but today suffers only from Aspergers and ADHD and no longer requires a feeding tube.  In his free time, he likes to edit videos.  Kristen came to the Iretons with shaken baby syndrome.  This is a very serious condition that occurs when a parent or caregiver shakes a crying baby, in attempt to quiet the baby. Since infants are so fragile and their muscles and bones are not fully developed, the tissues in the brain can tear and bleed, causing serious and irreversible damage. She also required a tracheotomy for many years.  Now, she lives out of the house and has a boyfriend, but she still has to be careful and watch for seizures as well as other medical problems.  Noah has Vaters Syndrome and was not expected to live past 6 months or ever walk.  He has defeated the odds, and now he can use a walker, crawl, and is in his 20’s.  Jennifer has cerebral palsy and was also never expected to live past six months or walk, but in the Ireton’s care, he has learned to walk without assistance and is also in her 20’s.  Jennifer and Noah both attend a regular program that works with them intellectually and physically.  Recently, Alex has had multiple surgeries on his spine because he has an extreme case of scoliosis.  Alex still goes to the special education program at the local public high school.

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